


Bottled With Love

by communikate



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Hospitals, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Season/Series 07, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29684187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/communikate/pseuds/communikate
Summary: After waking in the hospital, Keith promises that he'll never leave Shiro — the only way he knows how.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 20





	Bottled With Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QuantumAbyss_mal (lonestarjdv)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonestarjdv/gifts).



> This little drabble is for Quantum (@Quantumabyssmal), and even though it's already posted on my twitter, I thought I should post it here for Shiro's birthday! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

When Keith wakes, it’s like he’s still free falling — an awful combination between a rousing dream and reality. The second his eyes flash open, the impact of Black on Earth’s surface shutters through him.

But something mutes the sensation. It mutes everything.

The room around him is hazy, almost desaturated in color. He licks his lips and swallows against the awful taste in his mouth. Strangely the motions feel fuzzy, like he’s feeling everything through a thick layer of cotton.

“Keith, you’re awake,” a familiar voice breathes.

The smile feels sloppy on his face as Keith turns his head to the left, catching sight of the chair pulled up to the side of his hospital bed and the man sitting in it. The room seems to follow his motion, rocking and spinning until his gaze settles on Shiro — and it’s like the whole world goes quiet.

Shiro looks like an angel. Sunlight is gently dispersed by the gauzy curtain in the window behind him, and the rays catch in the rumpled silver strands of his hair. It’s like a nimbus, like Keith has been caught staring at something holy.

A fond smile pulls at his lips, delicate and soft and dimpled with pleasure. The grin transforms Shiro’s face — wrinkles the pearlescent scar on his nose and hides the bruise-like bags under his eyes and turns his gaze to liquid metal.

“Shiro,” the words are awkward as they stumble off Keith’s tongue. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Shiro breathes, and his smile takes on a mischievous turn. “How’re you feeling? They really doped you up, huh?”

“I feel great!” Keith gives Shiro an enthusiastic thumbs up, even though the movement makes the world spin. He licks his lips again, hoping to get rid of that persistent bad taste.

An open water bottle suddenly appears before him.

“Want a sip?” Shiro asks.

Keith takes it after a subtle — what he hopes is subtle — nod. The water is so refreshing and cool that he can’t help but groan.

Shiro chuckles and begins to talk.

Maybe it’s whatever medicine they’ve put him on, but Keith is struggling to follow the one-sided conversation. He’s so distracted by the way Shiro’s eyelashes flutter like dandelion seeds caught in the wind. Or the gentle flush that colors Shiro’s features in waves like the tide. Or maybe it’s the soothing rumble of Shiro’s voice that makes Keith’s eyes heavy.

Gentle fingers brush aside his bangs, and Keith opens his eyes without ever realizing that he closed them.

“Sorry, guess you’re tired, huh? Injuries like that really take it out of you.” There’s a note to Shiro’s voice that has Keith grabbing ahold of those fingers as they try to pull away.

“Sorry for scaring you,” Keith mumbles.

Shiro tightens his grip against Keith’s fingers. “It’s okay. I just get scared about you —” he stumbles over the words “— you leaving me.”

“I won’t leave.” Keith sets his teeth on edge. Even with the world spinning and the exhaustion that threatens to devour him, Keith would still chase after Shiro. He would chase after Shiro until the end of time. “I promise.”

Shiro’s huff of laughter is a bitter thing. “You can't promise something like that, Keith.”

And Keith wants to growl, to fight and to rage against any power in the universe that would dare to keep them apart. He pulls his hand from Shiro’s and fumbles for something concrete, something that can make his promise real enough for Shiro.

He clenches both hands, only to crush the almost-empty water bottle that still rests in one of them. With the tilt of his head, he guzzles down the last of the water and pulls off the little plastic ring from the top.

It’s just a piece of plastic — pointy from where the bands had broken against the removed cap. But the second he pushes it onto the ring finger of Shiro’s flesh hand, it becomes so much more than just plastic.

“Marry me,” Keith declares. He taps at the new “ring” on Shiro’s finger. “See? This is my promise to never leave you.”

Shiro’s chin trembles as a series of emotions flicker across his face. “Keith, you’re high out of your mind on drugs. You can’t possibly—”

“Then ask me when I wake up,” Keith interrupts as he speaks around a yawn. “I’ve loved you since I was 16. My mind’s made up, Shiro.”

And it turns out that Keith’s mind was made up, because Shiro and Keith make that promise officially only 4 months later.

**Author's Note:**

> If you feel like it, you can follow me on [tumblr](https://communikateee.tumblr.com) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/communikateeee)!


End file.
